Friday, April 23, 2010

Stranger Than Fiction

Gerard over at The Presurfer posted a very provocative image of a modern-looking man standing among a group of people in a museum photograph from the 40's. I followed his link to the article with the background story here, and found a mention of one of my favorite internet urban legends, the alleged time traveler from future Florida, John Titor. I think time travel belongs in fiction, and rather doubt it could work in reality (quantum universe-style or otherwise) but I do try to keep an open mind. Any future traveler out there who wants to convince me that it's possible is welcome to stop by my time period whenever you like.

When I was in high school, a friend and I took a shot at cracking the mysterious cypher involved in the Taman Shud case (also known as the Somerton man) and came up with a few words that made sense. We used a German translation of the Rubyiat to interpret the the first line of code and half of the third to read I’ve been wildly, extravagantly hunting but I think (my) drunkenness is at an end. Unfortunately following the same code from there made our translation fall apart, so it wasn't correct (or he switched languages in mid-code.) That school project led to my lifelong fascination with cyphers and encryptions.

I've always wondered about the truth behind all the hype surrounding the July 1947 crash of an alleged UFO in Roswell, NM. I think most UFO stories are also fiction, but they're great story fodder. For example, what sort of technology would an extraterrestrial employ in order to adapt if unexpectedly stranded here on Earth? That question formed the basis of my short story Box.

When you look at some of history's mysteries to see what inspires you, always go with an event, a figure, an object and/or a time period that you know you'd enjoy finding out more about; what you love will make you even more creative when you get to the world-building stage. Any enigma from our past can led to some exciting storytelling; all you have to do is a little digging, and then turn over whatever you find to your imagination.

I've only finished the time traveler story so far, but it looks like I'm going to have a lot of interesting material to read on my lunch break! (Like you, I think time travel belongs in fiction, and isn't probable in real life. If it is, I'm thinking the past has to be unchangeable, i.e. the time traveler was always there, or "whatever happened, happened." But I love reading stories where people go into the past/future.) Urban legends, fringe science, and cryptozoology are all areas of study I find utterly fascinating, even if they're not realistic.